


Take Care Of You

by AlwaysWrong



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Adoption, Age changes, Alternate Universe - Parents, Chapter Warnings Listed in Author’s Notes, Child Abuse, Child Neglect, Gen, I swear there are plenty of good to outway the bad, Implied/Referenced Drug Use, Minor Character Death, OT9 days, Overdose, Parents Suho & Lay, Slice of Life, Trigger Warnings
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-04
Updated: 2019-02-04
Packaged: 2019-09-05 20:49:20
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,923
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16818238
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AlwaysWrong/pseuds/AlwaysWrong
Summary: Family doesn’t have to be blood. Some families are born together. Others choose their families. Then there are the times that fate steps in and makes the tough choices for you.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Take Care Of You](https://archiveofourown.org/works/8592739) by [orphan_account](https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account). 



> A while back I started writing this work and lost inspiration in it. Then not too long ago, I stumbled upon it in my personal archives and found a renewed love of it. I do recommend going to the orginal work and reading that (link above), lot of important things to learn there. This is a direct continuation of that.

In his line of work, Minseok was used to getting phone calls at strange hours of the night. Even after time he had grown used to it, getting the calls was never easy. Something gone wrong with one of his kids or worse some tragic event causing him to get a new child to care for. Either way, he would be driving somewhere in the middle of the night.

All the lights were on in the small house when Minseok pulled his car up to the curb. Right behind a police car. Was calling the police really necessary? Worried, he quickly got out of his car and rushed up the walkway. A man in pajamas opened the door before he even had an opportunity to knock.

“Minseok-ssi, this is not working by any means.” A woman said, the second he had entered the house.

Looking around, the social worker tried to assess the situation. All the placement family had told him was that he needed to come and retrieve Jongdae immediately. The house seemed to be intact, nothing broken or noticeably out of place. A good sign. No blood or screaming children.

“Please forgive me, Mrs. Woo. But what exactly is the problem? And where is Jongdae?” He asked, slipping his shoes off.

“The boy you gave us is in his room with the office, making sure he doesn’t try to run off again.” She informed him, crossing her arms over her chest as if the whole ordeal was an inconvenience.

“Forgive my wife, Minseok-ssi.” The man of the house said, sliding an arm around his wife’s shoulders lovingly. “This week has proven harder than we had expected. Jongdae...he is not happy here. Practically everyday since you brought him here he has attempted to run off to who knows where. It’s taking a toll on us.”

“When we put in our application for adoption, I didn’t expect to be delivered a hoodlum.”

“I’m sorry, this isn’t working. My wife and I are both very concerned that if he runs off for good, it will ruin our chances in the future when we try to adopt later on. Please, take him someplace else.”

All Minseok could do was nod. If the placement family didn’t want the child, there was absolutely nothing he could do except take the child and find them a new placement. Bowing an apology to the couple, he headed down the hallway to the child’s room. Jongdae was sat on the floor, stacking blocks into a castle with help from the uniformed officer.

“Hi, Jongdae. Do you remember me?” Minseok smiled, kneeling down beside the child.

“Yeah. You brought me here. Are you gonna take me back to Momma now?” The young boy didn’t remove his eyes from the castle he was constructing.

“No, kiddo. I’m sorry. We don’t know where Momma is. But you are gonna come stay with me again. How does that sound?” He tried to make it sound like a fun adventure.

Within a few short minutes, Minseok has Jongdae buckled into the backseat of his car as he began driving back to his place. A glance in the rearview mirror showed that the lad was fast asleep. Taking a slow turn, he merged on to the highway, deciding to take a longer route home to use the quiet of the night to think.

The sun was starting to rise on the horizon when the social worker finally pulled into the parking garage of his building. The only conclusion having been made was Jongdae would be staying with him while he tried to find placement. Not that that was a big revelation. It was rather standard in his case.

Scooping sleeping the child into his arm, he headed up to his apartment. It had been a while since he had dealt with a runaway kid before. The last one he had worked with had been a distraught teenage girl, almost ready to age out of the system. In the end, she had taken off entirely with her older boyfriend and her case had been closed. He had never worked with a runner so young. A few days with Minseok and a few serious like talks would hopefully calm down his running instincts so he could be placed with a family on a semi permanent basis while they kept looking for his mother, or a formal adoption went through.


	2. Chapter 2

Even at his young age, Jongin has no problem with being alone. Momma would leave him alone a lot, usually when she locked herself in her bedroom with some tattooed man. Sometimes she would even leave him all alone in the house when she had to “make a run,” whatever that meant. For the most part, he was okay with it. Momma always kept the cereal, ramen, and rice packages on the low shelves for him to eat. All he needed was to move a chair to move a chair to get to the microwave or the kettle.

None of that could have prepared him for when Momma dressed him warmly and took him to the park, telling him to wait there for her. At first it was fun, there were so many other kids to play with. But then it got dark and all the other kids went away with their parents, leaving him all alone. For a while, he hid in the top of the climbing tower, eating his snacks, sure that Momma was gonna come back for him. Then the police showed up and took him away.

He hated being with the Woo’s. They were so much older than Momma and so different. They watched him all the time, as if he were a baby who couldn’t even feed himself and not a boy of almost eight. They made him take a bath every night and Mrs. Woo scrubbed him with a poofy scrubber that was nothing like the soft wash clothes he had at home. They gave him a bed time and would actually tuck him in in a bed, instead of letting him stay awake until he fell asleep on the couch like he did at home.

For a few days, Jongin put up with it, let the Woo’s treat him like their toy. Until he dreamt about Momma and how mad she would be when she went to get him from the park only to find him missing. So he left. After bedtime, when he thought that the Woo’s had gone to bed, he sneaked out of his room and out the front door, not even bothering with the new and very uncomfortable shoes that had been bought for him. He had barely made it a few blocks away when a police car pulled stopped in front of him.

At first he thought the police man was going to take him to Momma, but then the car pulled up in front of the Woo’s house. That’s when he decided he didn’t like the police at all. They were trying really hard to keep him from Momma when all he wanted was to go back to Momma. The police man stayed with him in the room, watching him while he built a castle out of blocks. A castle that Momma would tell him about when they cuddled in the big bed some nights. A large castle that was always warm that they would live in, just the two of them and all the animals Jongin wanted to keep as pets.

“Hi, Jongin. Do you remember me?” The short man he had met at the police station was kneeling down beside him, with a nice smile on his face. He was the man who took him to the Woo’s.

The next day was so boring, constituting completely of Jongin playing with race cars and building blocks in the space beside Minseok-hyung’s desk while the man was working. Once or twice Jongin got Minseok-hyung to play with him, seeing who could build the tallest tower or push their car the furthest.

Around lunchtime Minseok-hyung announced that they were done working for the day and helped Jongin pack his backpack. In the elevator to the street, Jongin tried to squirm away from the hold the man had on his hand, unused to the touching that all adults did to him when they were in public. Momma never held on to him, knowing that Jongin never got lost in a crowd.

Soon, Jongin was being led along through a busy market while Minseok-hyung talks on his phone, looking around. They stopped at a stall and food was ordered, packed into a bag and the walk continued, until they exited the market in a large courtyard. People sat at tables and benches, eating and talking. In the middle of the courtyard, where Minseok-hyung was guiding them, was a large fountain with turtles and fish spraying water into the air. Two men and a boy were sitting at a bench beside the fountain. They got comfortable beside them and started eating. Minseok-hyung introduced them as friends from when he was younger and their foster son, who was kicking around a soccer ball.

Jongin ignored the food held out to him and went to play with Baekhyun. A few kicks back and forth and the young boy started to formulate an idea. As more people entered the courtyard to eat, the harder it was becoming to play. But that would mean an easy escape for him to slip away to find Momma. With a strong kick, the ball went sailing into the crowd.

“I’m sorry, I’ll get it.” Jongin called before Baekhyun could go after the ball.

The lad spotted the ball stuck under a bench but ignored it, making his way back into the market. He moved quickly, slipping in between adults legs and crawling under tables when he can’t get around the crowd. He thought he was heading the way they had came, the way towards the street that would somehow lead to the park and then eventually to Momma. But nothing looked familiar. He climbed on to one of the vendors tables trying to get a better look around. Instead of a better view, he got a swat on the head by some old man before being pushed off the table.

Suddenly, Jongin was very scared. Standing in the middle of the busy market, he realized how lost and alone he was and tears started rolling down his cheeks. He didn’t have any idea where he was or where Momma was or how he could get back to her or even back to Minseok-hyung. Sobs shook his little body as he cried louder.

Moments later, he was swept off his feet, in the arms of an adult. He squirmed best he could in his scared state of mind, trying to get the person to put him down.

“Shh. Shh. Jongin-ah. I’ve got you.” Minseok-hyung’s familiar voice reached his ears over his own cries.

“Want Momma!” He wailed, burying his face in the man’s jacket. “Want Momma!”

“I know, little one.” Minseok-hyung’s voice was soft as they began moving, easing their way through the crowd. “You and I are gonna have a grown up talk when we get home. Do you think you can handle that?”

Jongin didn’t know how to answer that. He couldn’t even pretend to understand what a grown up talk would be about. Although he would be finding out soon. Meekly, he nodded, holding even tighter to the man as he continued to cry.


End file.
